Interesting book to give you an insight in the Islamic and Arabic culture from the Prophet to the Taliban and everything in between. It's a bit outdated however (I think it came out in the nineties somewhere; it still speaks of Hussein as the current president of Iraq) but a good read nevertheless.

I don't score it higher as 3, because it is written in a fairly subjective way. For example, the fundamentalists (of any kind) are called ``fundi's'' and jokes are being made by the author about various subjects.

Overall, a very interesting introduction to and a good overview of what Islam has meant and caused in this world over the past 1400 years or so. ( )